Pneumatic fasteners, such as brad nailers, finishing nailers, framing nailers, staplers and roofing nailers are widely used within both the construction and woodworking industries. However, during operation of current pneumatic fasteners, such as a roofing coil nailer, a fastener, such as a nail, may be loaded into a driver channel improperly. For instance, when the last nail of a coil of nails is loaded into the driver channel of the nose casting assembly, there may be nothing holding the nail in its correct position within the channel. Consequently, the last nail becomes inverted from a desired orientation within the channel of the nose casting assembly. Thus, when the driver blade fires through the driver channel, the driver blade may engage against the nail shank instead of the head of the nail. This engagement with the nail shank may cause the nail to become wedged within the channel between the driver blade and a wall of the nose casting assembly. Such wedging is problematic in that users may inadvertently damage the nose casting assembly by improperly removing the nail. It would be advantageous to have a pneumatic fastener having a nose casting assembly configured to prevent fasteners from becoming wedged or jammed.
Pneumatic fasteners further include valve assemblies for delivering air to a piston for driving the driver blade. However, current pneumatic fastener valve assemblies have a tendency to stick, due to pressure build-up within the valve assembly, thereby decreasing driving efficiency. Current valve assemblies may require exhaust ports or holes to be machined into the valve assembly to alleviate pressure build-up. It would be advantageous to have a pneumatic fastener having a valve assembly which reduced the profile and increased the efficiency of the pneumatic fastener by alleviating pressure buildup, without the added expense and inconvenience of having to machine vent holes into the valve assembly.
Current pneumatic fasteners may have difficulty when attempting to drive a fastener into a workpiece at severe angles or when the pneumatic fastener is being maneuvered in close quarters. For instance, when securing a fastener into a molding, it is often the case that users wish to drive nails at various angles into the molding. When implemented in such a situation, a pneumatic fastener, such as a finishing nailer, may be prevented from correctly counter-sinking a nail into these locations. Further, marring of the surface of the workpiece by the nose casting assembly may occur when trying to maneuver current pneumatic fasteners in close quarters. It would be advantageous to have a pneumatic fastener with increased maneuverability in close quarters, which does not damage a workpiece.